TRIPLE Double Trouble

Happy Twos-Day! Joining in the Two for Twos-day celebration hosted by Who Says 8 is Enough? and sharing THREE sets of duos.

The Dynamic Duo

This past weekend brought lots of fun our way. On Saturday we had a great time celebrating the Labor Day weekend at my mom's house. There was lots of fun and family, but who would have EVER thought that Katie and Paige would be the winners of the egg toss contest? At first they followed the lead of some of the smartypants older cousins and carefully caught the eggs in their shirts. However, as the game went on and they had to stand further and further apart they used a different strategy...they just kept tossing a short game and letting it land on the soft grass. As the older cousins kept tossing harder and harder and smashing the eggs in their hands, Katie and Paige moved on to victory! And no, we didn't even tell them to pose this way. If Katie had been playing football she would have been fined for her over the top victory dance/chant. I was left speechless wondering where the heck she had learned to do THAT?

Thelma & Louise

...if one was a giant and the other a munchkin. Ahh yea - Katie just turned 4 in July and Emma is almost 3. Yesterday, we had a great time continuing the party weekend with Chris's brother's family. I don't think 10 minutes went by that we weren't worried about where these 2 were and what they were getting into. They loved their red tongues and getting soaked with water pistols and as one ran in the house or one ran out, they were usually just looking for each other.

Jedi Master and Young Jedi

What do you get when you mix a kid that likes Sesame Street and the Backyardigans and likes to messily eat chips and hot dogs?......cousin worship from Timmy. And oh my gosh...when Will flipped his chips and meat all over the floor and let Timmy share with him...he became the ultimate cool cousin.

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Breaking News: Katie is FOUR!

Katie’s excitement has been building up for a while, now. A lover of birthday parties, she began the countdown around January when the string of our friends’ fourth birthdays began. When I say a “lover of birthdays”, I don’t mean just a kid who enjoys going to parties and having her own…it is her favorite subject and her favorite game to play. Whether she’s playing with her Melissa and Doug birthday cake set, playing with her Little People birthday set, stealing Timmy’s baby/christening gift bags to “make me presents,” or singing “Happy Birthday” just because, it’s clear that Katie loves a good birthday party.

Her 4th birthday has been a common topic in our bedtime chats. I’ve regularly begged her not to get bigger and to stay 3 forever and she always seriously told me, “No mommy, I HAVE to be 4. I have to get big. I need to be big so I can have a baby in my belly…10 babies.” She already has her entire life planned out. She is going “to be a doctor so she can help all the sick kids who need help to get better.” She plans to marry her Daddy when she is a grown-up…or maybe her cousin Adam.
Everything is “so cool” now…and “awesome”. Barbies have taken over our home! I’ve tried to put that off for awhile now. For the last 6 months, everytime we have been in Target and I have taken her over to the toys to complete my bribe for her good behaviour, she has begged for Barbies. I’ve said no for a while because she has a great Fisher Price Twin-Time doll house with just about every piece of furniture made and I didn’t want her to stop playing with that already. But, I gave in last week. Her first Barbie was a veterinarian Barbie….and between her birthday party presents and using some of the gift certificates she got for her birthday she now has 4 Barbies, a Barbie mermaid falls/swing, and a Barbie house.

Katie continues to be a great big sister. She loves Timmy as much as the first time she saw him and has adjusted wonderfully. She still goes to gymnastics classes at the Little Gym and is taking her first dance class this summer. She is really excited to start soccer this fall. She loves school and has already cried herself to sleep twice because she’s so sad that she doesn’t get to see her teachers during summer break and she “misses them so much.”

Katie is still on an anti-vegetable kick although she did gag down some broccoli last night (in exchange for a popsicle) and didn’t realize when I snuck some shredded carrot into her beef and macaroni the other day. Her favorite food is “meat”, particularly mini hotdogs/corndogs, chicken nuggets, and lunchmeat. Her favorite tv shows are all things Nick Jr, but she also has some PBS favorites like Martha Speaks, Clifford, Curious George, Wordgirl, and Sid the Science Kid. Just a year ago, she would watch nothing except Playhouse Disney! She had a Max and Ruby birthday party this past Saturday. She loves to play Memory, Hide and Seek, and Duck, Duck, Goose. She has moved on from her long-time obsession with “blue” and has altogether changed her favorite color to pink.

We’re having an issue with clothes and after our Disney trip this past April, Katie refuses to wear any form of jeans or any shorts/pants that have a zipper. So nice that this happened AFTER I bought all her spring and summer clothes. She still LOVES rides (the bigger and scarier the better!) and after her first trip to Sahara Sams, a local indoor water park, about a month ago, it’s all she talks about.(It’s painful because we drive past it twice a week to go to speech class.) For her birthday today, just she and I are going to go to the rides and outdoor Water Park at Clementon Lake Park. She is pretty lucky because her height has always allowed her to go on the “thrill rides” she prefers. She is about 43/44 inches right now and about 48 lbs. Thank goodness we have a pool because she has been in it every day since the weather has warmed up and she swims like a fish (well, a fish that wears swimmies).

So, the countdown began and yesterday I kept telling her things like, Katie this is the last time you will be 3, the last time you will wake up as a 3 year old, the last time you will go to night-night as a 3 year old and she was thrilled. This morning she rushed into my bedroom like it was Christmas morning proud to exclaim, “Mom, I’m FOUR years old!!!!” I was afraid she might be a little disappointed because from some conversations we’ve had, I was afraid she thought she was going to wake up as a grown up. And although she’s not “grown”, I miss my baby! I can handle four, though. Now five…I don’t even want to think about that, yet. I need a year to prepare myself…

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TWO for TWOS-Day - Generations

Remember I mentioned that Timmy got christened 2 weeks ago? Here's a sneak peak at our Irish Catholic beerfest that followed. Ok, well not really...but I did want to at least start getting some pictures up. My TWO for Tuesday this week is Timmy and my Pop-pop Doc. Check out Eight is Great and/or Who Says 8 is Enough? to find out who else is playing along. This is one of favorite themes to play along with and I hope Deanna will be posting it again soon. But in the meantime, I know that Debi is trying to keep the momentum going.


My mom's parents have 7 children (my mom's the 2nd of the 7) and loads of grandchildren and they now have 6 great-granchildren. When I was young, their youngest were still at home so we didn't get heaps of attention from them...at least we older grandkids tell ourselves that's the reason. Maybe they always did love babies, but as we got to be teenagers, a whole new wave of grandkids were born and they were the apples of my grandparent's eyes. I'm embarrassed to say that I've always striven to have "approval" from my grandparents, whatever that means. I lost my other grandmother (who in retrospect, I know loved us to pieces) early on and only ever had one living grandfather. Ok, getting to the point...I haven't felt like I've received a whole lot of affection from grandparents growing up, so it absolutely delights me to see them with my children, especially Timmy, who they adore. My mom tells me after every time they see him how much they get a kick out of him and I love seeing them ask to hold him.

Hey pop - I heard you were a marine...see if you can swim through my drool...

Pop -why do you have so many wrinkles?

Aww, I don't care...gimme a hug!

Nope, I need you closer...I want a kiss and to wrip your ears off...

I love you, pop. I'm glad to have this time with you...

...and with Grandmom Doc!

Sorry, that's 2 sets of 2. I was just going to do the "Daniels" (Timothy Daniel and Raymond Daniel), but I got carried away...

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